Aston Martin Went Bankrupt 7 Times — So Why Won't It Die?

Aston Martin is the car of James Bond — a symbol of British elegance wanted by kings, spies, and billionaires. But behind the glamour is one of the greatest financial disasters in automotive history: the company went bankrupt, or to the brink of collapse, seven times. So why won't it die? This is the rise and fall — and rise, and fall — of Aston Martin. Founded in 1913 by two friends in a small London workshop, Aston Martin built beautiful, hand-made cars it could never quite afford to produce. Its founders were pushed out within fifteen years — one left to make bicycles. For a century, a parade of wealthy owners fell in love with the brand and discovered the same brutal truth: owning Aston Martin is a fantastic way to lose a fortune. This business documentary traces the David Brown "DB" golden age, how the 1964 James Bond DB5 made it immortal, the seven bankruptcies, the Ford era, and how the most British car on Earth is now kept alive by Canadian, Saudi, Chinese, and German money. In this documentary: Lionel Martin, Robert Bamford, and the 1913 workshop Where the "Aston Martin" name really comes from The first bankruptcies and the founder who left to make bicycles David Brown and the birth of the DB series How the 1964 Goldfinger DB5 made Aston Martin immortal The seven collapses and the CEO who admitted them Why Aston Martin is now foreign-owned with Mercedes engines ⏱️ Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:30 Two Friends and a Legend They Couldn't Afford 03:30 A Century of Bankruptcies 05:30 David Brown and the Golden DB Era 06:30 The Spy Who Made It Immortal 08:00 Ford, the Float, and the Foreign Rescue 09:30 Too Beautiful to Succeed If you like stories of legends that refuse to die no matter how many times they fall, subscribe for more empires built and buried. Financial figures are external estimates and approximations. #AstonMartin #BusinessDocumentary #RiseAndFall